Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial

Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial. . Residents of Nacogdoches County will never forget the events surrounding the morning of February 1, 2003. Awakening to loud rumbles, many immediately recognized the sound to be much more than the usual sonic boom. Unlike the condensation streaks left by commercial airplanes, a much wider and more crooked trail crossed the sky. In no time at all, concerned citizens overwhelmed the Nacogdoches County sheriff's office switchboard. All reported an explosion which rattled windows and blew open doors. NASA announced they had lost communications with the shuttle, and media networks began to report the Space Shuttle Columbia had disintegrated 39 miles above Texas. Material from the shuttle fell, stretching across East Texas and Louisiana with over 1,200 pieces landing in and around the town of Nacogdoches., President George W. Bush's statement on February 1st will forever express the hearts of many Americans when he said the world had lost seven of its finest citizens, pioneers, and scientists. These men and women willingly "assumed great risk in their service to all humanity," but, he continued, while they "did not return safely to earth, we can pray that all are safely home.", On February 2, the headline on the front page of the Nacogdoches newspaper, The Daily Sentinel, stated what a stunned world already knew, "Shuttle explodes over East Texas." At the top of the page was a small photograph of the crew, for Columbia was not an empty piece of machinery. Aboard were seven young, bright, and brave astronauts: Rick D. Husband, commander; William C. McCool, pilot; Michael P. Anderson, payload commander; David M. Brown, mission specialist 1; Kalpana Chawla, mission specialist 2; Laurel Blair Salton Clark, mission specialist 4; and Ilan Ramon, payload specialist 1 and Israel's first astronaut., Seven trees have been planted in memory of these courageous men and women.